Your Money’s No Good – On the Roads, That Is

It says on our Fed Funny Money that “this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.” Except for paying tolls on government roads.

In which case, it’s not.

They won’t take your money. But they will force you to cart around an “easy pass” electronic receiver to pay your toll automatically. A transponder/receiver that identifies your car, notes its passing and sends you the bill (or debits an account). A receiver that also has the capability to track your vehicle as well as monitor its speed. They’re not – yet – using these “easy passes” to do more than collect tolls, but that doesn’t mean they won’t, especially as the financial pressures on state and local governments mount and the search for new revenue sources intensifies.